


And The Band Played On

by WordWarriors



Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, Kittens, M/M, Minor Character Death, courf comforts him, ferre is a doctor and loses a patient
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-19
Updated: 2016-05-19
Packaged: 2018-06-09 09:45:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 960
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6900904
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WordWarriors/pseuds/WordWarriors
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>anon prompt: courf reassuring ferre after he loses a patient</p><p>i tried to shoot for as happy an ending as i could make it</p>
            </blockquote>





	And The Band Played On

**Author's Note:**

> Who knows shit about hospital protocol? Not me lol

Courfeyrac had his hands full with kittens. At least five. Maybe six, but he can’t really tell. Kittens are a squirmy sort of animal. So when his phone rang, he couldn’t exactly answer. After he finished weighing each of the six, definitely six kittens, he grabbed his phone.

_Combeferre_

_(2) Missed Calls_

Courf wedged the phone between his shoulder and his ear as he started putting the kittens back into their pen. “Hey chickadee! What’s up? I was so swamped at the kennel toda-”

A shaky sigh on the other end of the call stops him cold.

“Honey? What’s wrong?”

Another trembling breath, and then-

“I lost her. She was alone, and she was-” almost a sob, barely a whimper. “I can’t take another three hours, I can’t finish my shift Courfeyrac please help me I don’t think I can stay on call I can barely keep it together, please.”

Courfeyrac took his own deep breath. Working at a hospital was always emotionally taxing, but he hadn’t heard his partner this upset in a long time. “Okay love, here’s what you’re going to do. I’m going to give you one minute. Be as sad as you want, as you can, for one minute. Save the rest for me when you get home. Are you alone?” a breathy _yeah_. “Alright. I’m here. it’ s okay. Let it out.”

For sixty seconds in an on-call room, Combeferre sobbed until his voice was hoarse. For sixty seconds, Courfeyrac’s heart broke, over and over again.

When Combeferre hiccuped on an inhale, Courf gently cut in. “That’s time sweetheart. Take as long as you want to pull yourself together, but everything else is for when you get home. Have you eaten yet?” Combeferre hiccuped a small no. “Then make sure you get something to tide you over, and I’ll have dinner ready when you get home. I love you so much, and I have so much faith in you. I will see you as soon as your shift is over.”

–

Less than an hour later, Courfeyrac was in the kitchen, stirring soup when he heard the front door open and the sound of a bag hitting the floor. He ran to his boyfriend, catching him in a hug before he could fall over.

“‘Ferre? I thought you had another few hours of your shift?”

Combeferre rested all of his weight on Courf, and clutched him like he was the only thing keeping him standing. (he was) “Javert sent me home. I was a mess, I couldn’t even place an IV, my hand was shaking so bad. I couldn’t even get a handle on myself, I was _useless_ -”

Courfeyrac ran his hands along Ferre’s back. “Hey, no stop that. You’re allowed to feel sad, you’re allowed to mourn. Your patient mattered a lot to you, you don’t need to apologize. I’m making wontons, do you want to help?”

He nodded, and Courf led him into the kitchen, where a pot of soup was just starting to boil.

“Here, you watch the soup and I’ll make the wontons. Just sit, here it’s okay.”

Later, after dinner, they laid on the couch, Combeferre with his face on Courfeyrac’s chest, having moved on from loud sobs to quiet hiccups.

“Tell me about her.”

Combeferre shifted his head and took a deep breath. “She had AIDS. Very far along. We couldn’t do much more than make her comfortable. She didn’t say it, but I’m pretty sure she was a prostitute. You wouldn’t have guessed it, though. She seemed so naive, she had such a faith in the world, in me. She would always have this huge smile on her face. She said it was because I told good jokes, but I found out it was because no one visited her. She didn’t have _anybody_. Towards-” His voice got think, his tears came back. “Towards the end, the AIDS really started to affect her. She would lapse into nonsense, and she would just look so frustrated, like she knew I wasn’t understanding her, and I would just feel awful. And then-” he took another deep breath, squeezed Courfeyrac tighter. “Right before she- before, she started hallucinating, she was talking like the room was full of people. She looked so happy, she was crying, and she was still just talking gibberish. And then she looked at me, and she started talking like I was her daughter, about how proud she was of me, how she was so sorry and that she loved me. And then she was gone. She died without anybody visiting her, without anybody knowing she had passed. She died _alone_.”

“Oh honey, oh darling. She had _you_.”

Combeferre was beyond words. He just held on hard and started crying again. After a few minutes, Courfeyrac threaded his hand into Ferre’s hair. “Hey, I want to show you something. Stay here.” He went into their shared office space, and Combeferre shifted so he was laying on his back, closing his eyes to try and keep them from burning too much. A minute later, a small squirmy weight was placed on his chest.

“This,” said Courfeyrac “is what happened at work today. We got this new litter, the mother had died this morning. She had three siblings, but they all died. She’s the only one left. The vet thinks she’s less than a week old, and she needs round the clock care because she’s so young, so I brought her home. And she needs a name.”

The small kitten shook as she walked over Combeferre’s chest. He went to pet her, and she was barely the size of his palm. He scratched his finger over her head, and she would have looked at him, if her eyes were open.

“Hey, Fantine.”

**Author's Note:**

> title comes from the movie that semi inspired fantine's death scene, and courf is 100% kittenxlady (check her out shes great) who just also works at a vet


End file.
